Today in History for Nov. 7, 2012

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 7, the 312th day of 2012. There are 54 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight:

On Nov. 7, 1972, President Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.

On this date:

In 1811, U.S. forces led by Indiana Territory Gov. William Henry Harrison defeated warriors from Tecumseh’s Confederacy in the Battle of Tippecanoe.

In 1861, former U.S. President John Tyler was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives (however, Tyler died before he could take his seat).

In 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln replaced replace Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac with Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside.

In 1912, black boxing champion Jack Johnson was indicted in Chicago for allegedly violating the Mann Act with a white woman, Belle Schreiber. (Johnson was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison; he fled the U.S., later returning to serve his term.)

In 1916, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.

In 1917, Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.

In 1940, Washington state’s original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed “Galloping Gertie,” collapsed into Puget Sound during a windstorm.

In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.

In 1962, Republican Richard Nixon, having lost California’s gubernatorial race, held what he called his “last press conference,” telling reporters, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, 78, died in New York City.

In 1973, Congress overrode President Richard Nixon’s veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive’s power to wage war without congressional approval.

In 1980, actor Steve McQueen died in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, at age 50.

In 1992, former Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek, whose failed attempt to loosen the Communist grip on his country became known as the “Prague Spring,” died at age 70.

Ten years ago: In his first news conference since the midterm elections, President George W. Bush, charting an agenda for the new Republican Congress, said that homeland security came first and that an economic-recovery plan with new tax cuts would wait until the next year. Dick Gephardt stepped down as House Democratic leader in the wake of his party’s election losses.

Five years ago: An 18-year-old gunman opened fire at his high school in Tuusula, Finland, killing seven other students and the principal before taking his own life. A cargo ship struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, causing the San Francisco Bay’s worst oil spill in nearly two decades. Space shuttle Discovery and its crew returned to Earth, concluding a 15-day space station build-and-repair mission. At the Country Music Association Awards, Kenny Chesney won his second straight entertainer of the year award, while Carrie Underwood made it back-to-back trophies as female vocalist of the year; Brad Paisley was named male vocalist.

One year ago: A jury in Los Angeles convicted Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, of involuntary manslaughter for supplying a powerful anesthetic implicated in the entertainer’s 2009 death (he was sentenced to four years in jail). Former heavyweight champion boxer Joe Frazier died in Philadelphia at age 67.

Today’s birthdays: Evangelist Billy Graham is 94. Actor Barry Newman is 74. Singer Johnny Rivers is 70. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 69. CIA Director David Petraeus is 60. Actor Christopher Knight (“The Brady Bunch”) is 55. Rock musician Tommy Thayer (KISS) is 52. Actress Julie Pinson is 45. Rock musician Greg Tribbett (Mudvayne) is 44. Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes is 40. Actors Jeremy and Jason London are 40. Actress Yunjin Kim is 39. Rock musician Zach Myers (Shinedown) is 29. Rapper Tinie Tempah is 24.

Thought for today: “Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.” — Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962).